Saturday, May 14, 2016

ALAN, NOAH, ZACH AND RYAN

PRELUDE: ALAN, NOAH, ZACH AND RYAN

In the city of Aven lived four teenagers who were the best friends in the world. They were exceptional because of their extravagant dreams. Alan’s passion was the stars and space travel, Noah longed to meet her superheroes, Zach wanted to challenge the strongest man in the world and Ryan desired to see the Agape face-to-face.

Children of modern times, trust them on anything hi-tech, science fiction, space, martial arts, comics and cartoons. They spent their time, assets and talents on these, meaning starving at school. They lived in the same neighbourhood, attended the same school and they were everywhere together. They used to gather at night on the roof of Alan’s house to talk of fantastic adventures. As they gazed at the stars, they believed earnestly and waited patiently for the fulfilment of their dreams.

A spaceship, RM XIX, was launching from their city. As these four friends talked it out every day, Noah came up with an idea. She proposed that they sneak into the spaceship and hide there until it was launched. They all agreed after reasoning that it was their only chance of getting to space. They started gathering information on RM XIX and the astronomy base, and they set up an intrusion plan. Then they packed their things and prepared for the journey. Since his father was working at the astronomy centre, Alan got four air bottles from there; Noah brought provisions while Zach and Ryan planned their infiltration.

Dressed in special space suits, the children secretly broke into the astronomy base and got into the spaceship some hours before it launched. Doors gave no resistance to the smart Ryan and so these four friends found themselves in the third compartment of the spaceship at countdown. Full of expectation, they waited quietly for zero hour. Then RM XIX took off, and the children headed for space.

They silently sat in the third compartment until the vessel moved out of Earth’s atmosphere and became steady in outer space. After minutes of anticipation, the children stood up and looked through the transparent windowpane. They got the best of it. Alan, Noah, Ryan and Zach exulted as they gazed in wonder at the mystery of space. And what a marvel it was to them!

They made a mistake though. They failed to enquire on the shuttle’s stages of movement. RM XIX’s mission was to provide space station VEX M21 with materials for construction. It never meant to take a straightforward course. It had to make a detour along the way, moving first towards Jupiter and then coming back to the space station. What our friends didn’t know was that the compartment they were would cut off during the turn.

Indeed, near Jupiter, the small compartment disconnected from the main vessel and the lone capsule drifted on its own to unknown space. Realizing this, the children panicked and feared all was lost. But with faith-filled words, Ryan reassured them and they were strengthened to face this situation courageously.

Noah: “At least we’ve seen space; and we all agreed to accept the consequences of our action.”
Alan: “This is epic! We’re presently living our dreams. I don’t know about you guys, but this is the best end for me. I’ve reached where I’ve always wanted.”
Zach: “Don’t talk of end when we’re only at the beginning. I feel something even greater will happen to us.”

Ryan: “We always look at the sky when blessing Him. It’s now or never. Guys, let’s put our faith to work.”
Noah: “Saying it is easy but how do we do that?”
Ryan: “By imagining and declaring what we want to happen to us and be certain of the outcome. Remember, we only need faith alone in Him alone.”
Alan: “I knew this journey would be super. I’m ready, so let’s get started.”

The children wore their space helmets, held each other’s hands and closed their eyes with complete confidence. As they were communing, a small meteor advanced straight towards them at high speed, hitting the capsule forcefully. The impact was so great that it tore open the capsule and projected the children into outer space. Though unstable, they struggled and held their hands together, forming a circle.

They smiled widely at each other since they were living then what they used to talk about every night - floating in space. As they remained thus, savouring the uniqueness of the moment, a bright light flashed from a distance and gradually moved in their direction. They remained calm and pressed each other’s hands while gazing at the approaching brightness. The light caught them and its luminosity engulfed them, driving them into oblivion.

The unpleasant sensation of water splashed on the face of a sleeper woke them out of coma. On getting up, they noticed that their space suits were gone and they were in their normal clothes. They looked around and found themselves in a beautiful large field with magnificent scenery at the background. They knew it wasn’t Earth yet something still looked familiar. They were shocked on turning around and seeing that the one standing behind them was actually…